We’re sorry for the delay! This podcast was actually recorded last week. Unfortunately, on the night Noah was to edit and post it, there was a severe windstorm that took out power (and also internet) at his home for over a day. It didn’t come back up until Noah went on a vacation, so we’re presenting you that episode this week. We’ll be back to our regular timing next week!

4 Responses to “Nintendo Heartcast Episode 032: Visiting Professor”

it was fun playing kid icarus again and i would gladly play again this monday this time however I will put in some prep time and have a few loadouts ready to go When the new pokemon stadium comes out or when brad feels up to it we should start are own pokemon group contrary to my last post i lie between competitive and casaul battler so dont be to afraid of me that goes for kid icarus too i both games i focus more on being tricky than winning oh and brad once you hit the post game content send a voice mesage to the podcast with your opinion … Please?

I prefer Sandslash over sandshrew because sandslash has cooler design. But stopped playing Pokemon since Ruby and Sapphire Pokemon games. We did not get a reason on a week delay and not even any tweets from you all. I was almost like you all disappeared into thin air. Would the ability of customizing final smashes with new DLC be a good idea? So it give the game fresher cor the characters future or past games. Do you have any opinion of the new anime based on the console wars? The one called Aoi Sekai no Chushin de? I have no more online games besides MK7 and Kid Icarus Uprising to play…

Yes! I must send something in! Nay, I NEED to!
Anyway, I wanted to bring up Playstation All Stars Battle Royale. Though I realize it isn’t a Nintendo game, it is very much LIKE a certain OTHER game published by Nintendo, and I think it is interesting to examine how this particular effort to recreate the Smash Bros magic fares.

I have been playing the beta, and I gotta say I’m disappointed. I get the feeling it copies Smash Bros in all the wrong ways.

It’s presentation feels very corporate, like it was designed to be unmemorable. Maybe they were going for a futuristic professional fighting league sort of thing, but it just comes off as bland.

The characters are way too small. At first, when I heard this complaint in previews, I didn’t understand why it was a problem. But when the camera doesn’t zoom in to let you see the finer details of the characters, you can’t see anything coming. In Smash Bros., most characters say something, or twitch in a certain way before any given move, giving you a split second to react. That is what creates the suspenseful back and forth and trading blows, especially near the end of a match when a single tap can send you flying. In All Stars, though, I can’t even be sure if there are any tells in the characters. If there are, I can’t see them.

Also, the characters just don’t seem agile enough. In Smash Bros., almost every move affects your movement in some way. Some moves push you back, slow your momentum, change your direction, and so on and so forth. Even dodge and guard moves give you a horizontal shift. In All Stars, there are double jumps, and thats it. No wall jumps, no momentum canceling guards, no up-B equivalent. If the game didn’t have so many holes and platforms to navigate, it wouldn’t be a problem, but All Stars seems to forget that it has such clunky Little Big Planet-esque movement mechanics. Add a slow walking speed (no dashing), and most characters feel like tanks.

Though I have a few other nitpicks about the game, I leave it be after this last one. The fixed knockback bugs the LIFE out of me. Every character has one or two moves that can knock other characters all the way across the stage, and they aren’t particularly hard to land. 2 of the Beta characters (Kratos and … uh … that Killzone dude) have ranged attacks that can do this, sometimes from across the stage, and everyone online picks them. Though there are 6 characters, only those 2 and Sly Cooper (for his invisibility) can stand a chance in the ring. Now these characters aren’t doing any special amount of damage with these higher knock back moves, but if someone is spamming these moves, they are virtually untouchable unless you can get the one item that hurts them from far away. Meanwhile, Parappa and his stubby little arms can barely do anything about Kratos unless another Kratos knocks him within attacking distance.
Also, it’s kind of lame when characters disappear into eachother because they were standing in the same place when they got hit, and they flew the exact same distance with the same exact animation. Fixed knockback works for close combat, not for a platforming mascot fighter.

Well, the game is still in Beta, and for all I know, these problems have been fixed. But at least for now, I think I’ll stick to Brawl. Or even TMNT Smash Up. That was good too.